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Pre-Surgical Information
Spaying or neutering your pet is a big step! There is a lot to consider
when we are planning your pet’s surgery. Here is some information to help
you make wise decisions.
Click here . . .
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Special LibraryOur Special Library
is a collection of informative articles on a variety of health topics.
Click here . . .
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Discharge InstructionsClick here for
information on how to care for your pet at home.
Click here . . .
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Spring Tune-Up
It's Spring. Birds, bees, flowers, mud, the works.
Time to put a little spring cleaning on your horse.
Springtime is a good time of year. Full of hope and
promise for better things to come. Soon the air will be
full of birds and mosquitos and West Nile Virus. You'll be
riding a lot more, and stressing your horse's joints and
ligaments. A little preventative maintenence can go a long
ways towards helping you and your horse have an active and safe
summer.
Summer is also the time Chronic Lameness problems first show up.
Chronic Lameness is about the worst thing that can happen to a
horse. Chronic lameness is lameness that never gets better
or goes away. Chronic lameness destroys the horse's
quality of life, and it robs you the owner of the horse's use
and enjoyment. Chronic lameness can be things like navicular
disease, sore heels, and the various forms of arthritis.
They cause constant low-grade pain that robs your horse of
speed, endurance, agility, and makes just getting around a real
pain. Chronic lameness starts small, and gets worse year
after year until finally it gets bad enough that it makes the
horse limp obviously. But by then it is often too late for
a full recovery.
How common is Chronic Lameness? Common. I am
constantly amazed at how many horses we do pre-purchase
examinations on that have some form of chronic pain. I
remember one client who was horse-shopping
a few years ago. He'd find a horse to buy, bring it in for
a pre-purchase exam, and we'd find that it had sore heels.
So he'd find another and bring it in, only to find that it too
had sore heels. Well, it wasn't like there were lots of
folks out there purposefully trying to sell lame horses.
The sellers themselves didn't know that the horse had problems.
It wasn't until the exam was done that the problem was found.
If that exam had been done sooner rather than later.....
What kinds of things cause chronic lameness? Well, in my
15 years of experience, the causes are commonly little
things, like shoeing and trimming problems that went
uncorrected, and conformation problems that were never properly
dealt with. If these problems would have been detected
and dealt with early on, in many cases the chronic lameness
could have been prevented. Also, hard work and intensive
training can cause problems that start small but end up as
chronic lameness. These kinds of issues, if dealt with
early on, can be resolved, but if they go on for years the
chances for recovery are slim.
Let met tell a personal story. About two years ago I
started to have a little pain in one heel. It wasn't there
all the time, mostly after I had spent the whole day walking
around, and it would go away in a few days. But it got
worse little by little over the next year or so until I was
having some significant pain most days. It finally got bad enought that I was limping obviously, and I went to the doctor.
I had plantar fascitis. It took some corrective shoeing,
some anti-inflammatories, some physical therapy, and a lot of
time, but it is now under control. Notice that I didn't
say cured. I still have problems with it if I over-do it.
Now, the moral of the story is that if I had identified my
problem early on two years ago and done the corrective stuff
then, it would be cured, and it wouldn't have taken the 8 months
that is did to treat it.
I've said this before but nobody listened, so I'll say it again
louder. Every horse needs a good physical exam every year,
where we can look for early lameness problems and other health
concerns. We need to watch them move, flex their legs, and
do a hoof tester exam. We need to critique their
shoeing/trimming, look at their conformation, and check them for
health problems. The goal is to detect problems early, and
make changes that will keep these early problems form becoming
chronic lameness and ruining the horse. For some reason in
eastern Idaho, people aren't used to having this done.
Maybe it's time we change.
We'll schedule a time to bring the horse in, and go through a
lameness screening exam. We'll look at how the horse
moves, how he stands, his hoof shape, leg conformation, and how
the bones line up. Then we'll trot him out, we'll do a few
flexion tests, and we'll do a hoof tester exam. It will
take about 15 minutes and cost about $45. We can give the
spring vaccinations, and do any dental work your horse needs at
the same time. Our goal is to identify problems early,
before they become big problems, and to treat them while they
are still treatable. A stitch in time saves nine.
A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You get
the idea.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
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